Michigan

Recycling move meets flak

A proposed move of the city's recycling center to Emmons Service Inc. is in doubt after other companies that collect recyclables protested.

Jackson City Manager William Ross said that because of concerns raised by Northwest Refuse and Modern Waste, the city is now looking at other options to moving its recycling site from city-owned property on Louis Glick Highway to Emmons, 931 Water St.

Northwest and Modern Waste  but not Emmons  now pick up recyclables from the city collection site for free and sell the recyclables.

"There must be money in this now," Ross said of collecting recyclables. "Frankly, this surprised me a little bit.

"(Northwest and Modern Waste) raised the issues, and we need to address them. There are other alternatives, and we need to look at them."

Locations under consideration include outside the Westwood Mall, behind the fire station on Jackson Street and in the Consumers Energy parking lot behind Wendy's off Cooper Street.

Ross said the preferred location is still at the Emmons facility.

"I prefer that because it gets it out of public hands," Ross said. "It is already set up, and (Emmons) can handle it."

Mary Laughlin, office manager of Emmons, said she is "disappointed" about the possibility of a change in plans.

The city's Louis Glick Highway site opened in 2005 to serve as a temporary location.

Officials chose it because the property was city-owned, easy to reach and visible. But officials since have heard complaints about the appearance of the location as newspapers, plastic, tin and cardboard overflow outside the collection containers.

Phil Duckham, president of Modern Waste, said more containers could be added, but the city objected to that solution.

"The success of the program speaks to the problem," he said. "We want to put larger (collection containers), but they just don't want them. They want people to recycle and want it to grow, but as it grows they don't want larger boxes. They are the cause of their own problem."

Allowing Emmons to handle all of the city's recyclables would give that company an "unfair advantage," Duckham said.

Containers used at the Louis Glick location were donated by the county, said Duckham  who is also a Jackson County commissioner  and directing residents to drop off recyclables at Emmons would go "against the spirit of how the boxes were obtained."

"I would loudly object if they were given to a for-profit company." he said.

If the city sent people to the Emmons location, that site would not be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week as the Louis Glick Highway site is, Duckham said. If it was moved to another neutral site, he said, those services would remain available to recyclers.

Last week the City Council listed moving the city recycling site as a goal for Ross to complete and set a Nov. 1 deadline.